


Insane

by Sariau



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast), The Adventure Zone: Balance (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Suicidal Thoughts, could be Taako/Magnus if you want
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-23 07:58:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13185750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sariau/pseuds/Sariau
Summary: Taako does something stupid, and Magnus calls him on it.





	Insane

“ARE YOU INSANE?” Magnus shouts, bellows, closing the door behind him. Merle has already waddled his way away from this impending argument, saying as such before they even reached the elevator. Magnus is angry, and he can’t tell if he’s angry at the situation, the events leading up to it, or Taako himself. “ARE YOU ACTUALLY INSANE?”

Through the haze of his anger, Magnus can see Taako ahead of him, facing away with shoulders slumped. The elf is roughed up from the fight they managed to get through. Another bust on a Relic, but what else is new?

“Do you really want me to answer that?” Taako spoke with a deep tone that’s almost gravelly. Magnus has never heard Taako’s voice go so low- except that Garyl spoke that low too, didn’t he? Taako’s ears are pressed as low as they can go, and there’s the faint outline of him holding himself.

Magnus sucks in a breath, and it gets stuck there. And he can’t get anything out.

“Because there’s an answer to that question that unloads a lot of baggage, and honestly?” Taako finally looks back, and there isn’t even a glint in those eyes. “I don’t think it’s worth the time or the effort. Let’s just pretend none of this happened. Just erase the entire day since it was so crappy.” Magnus would compare them to a doll’s eyes, and that really concerns him.

“Sure.” He finally gets out, and he’s relieved it sounds steady. “I can try my hand at cooking again, and you can critique everything while pretending not to and reading a book at the same time.”

Taako sniffs imperiously, but the movement is fluid. More relaxed than the mechanical motions he had been going through before. Magnus sighs a little in relief.

They spend the rest of the night bickering, taking shots at each other from the other room. Magnus doesn’t know how Taako knows he is chopping the carrot wrong with a wall between them, but it’s still a little creepy. He wants to call him out of using magic, but if that’s how Taako wants to burn his spell slots at the end of the day, that’s Taako’s prerogative.

In return, Magnus shifts Taako’s chair underneath him. Not enough for him to miss the chair and land on the floor, but so he sits on the bits not meant to be sat on. Taako glares at him across the table, but doesn’t reciprocate. They eat, eventually migrating to the living room when they’re done.

Magnus sinks into one end of the couch with a sigh. He feels something lean against his shins, and he looks down to see Taako resting against his legs on the floor. There’s a book open in the elf’s lap, and he already looks engrossed in it.

Magnus kinda doesn’t want to get up? Like, this is comfortable, and it’d be nice if he had his carving tools and a bit of wood to do something mindless, but this is still good.

Yeah. Still good.

At some point, his hands find their way to Taako’s hair. Twisting and twirling locks between his fingers, and Taako only hums a little bit at the beginning, not looking up from his book. Magnus takes that as an okay, and starts braiding.

He’s halfway through his third braid when he speaks up. “So, that baggage you were talking about earlier? Maybe if we unpack it a little at a time, it’ll be easier?”

Taako sighs, and Magnus can’t see his face when he closes his book. “Yeah. Sure, my dude. Do you want the lighter stuff or the heavier stuff first?”

“Let’s just go with something in the middle? Or something you want to tell me. I’ll be all ears.” Magnus doesn’t stop braiding Taako’s hair. It feels nice on the skin not hardened by the life of a warrior and carpenter, and Magnus usually needs something to occupy his hands if he’s going to be sitting still for very long.

Magnus watches Taako take a deep breath, his shoulders rising and his chest expanding. Then he lets it out with a rush of words. “I’ve had a pretty damn horrible memory up until about a decade ago.”

Magnus waits a moment to see if there is anything else. Silence. “Okay. I guess that would be something pretty recent for elves, considering how long you guys live. Do you know what changed it?”

“No idea.” Taako thumped his head backwards into Magnus’s knees, and looked upside down at Magnus. “I started my show around then, I guess? It didn’t gain traction for, like, another two or three years though.”

“So what’s wrong with the memory thing? I don’t remember my whole life up to now, and that’s normal. So what’s wrong?”

Taako closes his eyes, and Magnus can see how tired he is from this close. Magnus can see the streaks of makeup running thin under Taako’s eyes, and those are some dark bags right there. “The problem is I’ve forgotten someone- or some people I don’t know- to the point that I’m radically different at some random point a decade ago.

“One moment I was great! Flying high on freedom or some shit. And the next I’m out in the middle of nowhere with my brand new cart, and it feels too dark and too empty, I care for fuckin’ no one, and everyone’s a threat out to get me. That last one isn’t all that new, but it ratcheted up to an eleven, so it counts.

“Basically, I was stable before that. I’m just coasting on shakey ground now.” Taako opens his eyes again, and Magnus stares back. “I’m going to crash and burn. Why does it matter when I do it?”

Taako grins, and Magnus doesn’t like that broken smile. He doesn’t have the tools to fix it. If it was wood, he could, but Taako is a maze puzzle with it’s center missing, and he doesn’t know how to help. So he stays there, and hopes his presence is enough until he _can_ figure it out.

“Does that mean I’m insane?”

**Author's Note:**

> Kinda looking at Taako's past in the same way Griffin described how Boyland's family had him overwritten, and I think Taako would realize something was going down, and might have been slowly crashing and burning since he forgot his sister. 
> 
> I'm not going to say exactly what Taako did to get Magnus so angry, and I'm going to leave what follows up to your imagination.
> 
> Thanks for reading! I've got a tumblr, come bug me over [there](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/sariau-write)!


End file.
